Today In History

Returns to the map Stalingrad

The Russian city of Volgograd remember the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in one of the bloodiest battles that changed the course of Mundia War.
The Russian city of Volgograd Stalingrad awoke as a day to celebrate and the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory in the historic battle against Nazi Germany that changed the course of World War II. About 20,000 people attended the solemn military march in the Plaza of the Fallen Fighters, led by the legendary Soviet T-34 tank, armored core weapon of the Red Army during that war, and starring 650 soldiers, officers and cadets of the Body Volgograd Cossack.

Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to the city to lay flowers at the Pantheon of Glory, crowned by the statue of the Motherland. Shortly thereafter, during the concert in honor of the victory and the war veterans, the Russian president said that the battle of Stalingrad is remembered and honored not only in Russia but in dozens of countries and cities around the world and especially Europe, where streets and squares are named after the city.

"Stalingrad will be for ever and ever the symbol of unity and the invulnerability of our people, a symbol of true patriotism, the great victory of the Soviet liberator soldier. And while we are faithful to Russia, to our language and culture, to our roots (...) Russia will be invincible, "he exclaimed. The legendary city of southeast Russia, bordered by the River Volga, recalled the bloodiest chapter in history, the first urban battle that had to face, between July 1942 and February 1943, the hitherto virtually invincible German Army .

About two million people, including civilians and Soviet and German soldiers perished on the banks of the largest river in Europe during the 200 days exactly that tipped the balance of the war in favor of the Soviet Union and the Allies. Among the victims of Stalingrad was Ibarruri Ruben Ruiz, the only son of the Spanish communist leader Dolores Ibarruri Gomez, best known for Passion, who had emigrated to the Soviet Union after the defeat of the republican side in the civil war that tore Spain between 1936 and 1939.

The only son of the Passion, who had fought in his native country, died on September 14, 1942 in Stalingrad, after which he was posthumously honored as a Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest award in the communist country. At Stalingrad, renamed Volgograd, where more than a million people, almost everything reminisces Stalingrad heroic past.

The city is dotted with countless monuments to the Soviet victory with his size and oppress merciless drama and not let visitors forget the suffering and death. Many survivors of war and not a few of their descendants, grown in the memory of the stoicism of the city, they want the name for a day now regained their homeland will remain forever.

To them have been circulating since and until May 9, when Russians celebrate Victory Day over Nazi Germany, five stalinobuses, the controversial buses with the image of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. The initiative, widely criticized by human rights advocates and liberal opposition, wants to highlight the crucial role of Stalin in the victory over the Germans, what they consider an act of "historical justice".

Never mind that the role of the dictator, according to most contemporary historians, condemned to death for millions of people and reduced the city to ashes practically. "It's time to stop the withdrawal. Not one step back," read the speech of Stalin troops in July 1942, the famous directive 227 that left no option to go back and why punitive battalions were created, they should strafe to those who would whisk retreating.

The city was destroyed by the German air and artillery, but with the Soviets on the ball, the troops of Marshal Von Paulus was forced to fight house to house on the ruins of the buildings in the middle of a harsh winter with temperatures to 40 degrees below zero, something that could not endure. Stalingrad marked the beginning of the great Soviet counteroffensive that began with the expulsion of the Nazi invader and ended with the capture of Berlin in 1945

I changed the topic. Correct me if I'm wrong.